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Professor: Peter Stone TA: Todd Hester. Autonomous Robots CS 393R. Robots. Slides Courtesy of Benjamin Kuipers. Robots. Robots. What is a robot?. A robot is an intelligent system that interacts with the physical environment through sensors and effectors. Program module?
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Professor: Peter Stone TA: Todd Hester Autonomous RobotsCS 393R
Robots Slides Courtesy of Benjamin Kuipers
What is a robot? • A robot is an intelligent system that interacts with the physical environment through sensors and effectors. • Program module? • Web crawling ‘bot? Robot sensors effectors Environment
Slide by Manuela Veloso (on web)
Is a human a robot? • By our definition, yes. • Humans interact with a complex physical environment via sensors and effectors. • We are not artificially manufactured, of course! • Does this diminish humans? No! • Understanding the difficulties of robotics helps us appreciate how amazing humans are.
We will study robots that … • … function in (mostly) unmodified human environments. • (Well, in soccer fields, anyway.) • … that use, and perhaps even learn, useful models of the environment. • They have knowledge, and act on it.
What makes a good model of the environment? • A good model is a simplified description of the environment such that … • If the robot orients itself in the model, • and makes a plan using the model, • and executes that plan in the real environment, • then the plan has its intended effect.
What will we do in this course? • Our goal is to learn some methods for implementing this interactive loop. • We will spend a few weeks each on topics that often get entire graduate courses. Robot sensors effectors Environment
Subject Material Areas • Motion and Control (action) • PID control, open/closed loop control, action modeling, walking, ... • Sensing and Perception (perception) • Range sensing, vision, filtering, sensor modeling, ... • Decision Making (cognition) • Behavior architectures, planning, AI, developmental psychology, ...
“Hello, World!” (9/10) Motor control (9/24) Kalman filter (10/8) Localization (10/22) Vision (11/5) Final projects (12/3) Proposal (10/15) Literature survey (11/12) Demonstration (12/1) Major Topics and Projects • What is robotics? • Control theory • Observers and tracking • Localization • Vision • Behavior • Applications • Social implications Official Syllabus online
Control Laws and Behaviors • Rules for behaving in a qualitatively uniform environment. • Following walls, seeking open space or targets. • Rich theory based on differential equations and dynamical systems. • Reality outside the model is treated as noise. • Compose multiple control laws to make behaviors. • Task: Approach and kick a ball to a target.
Observers • Sensors don’t sense the world directly. • They just respond to its stimulation. • By gathering lots of sensor input over time, we can estimate what the world is like. • Assumes models of the nature of the world, and of sensor properties, such as error types. • Task: Implement Kalman Filters to track and block a rolling ball.
Social Implications • Robots may change our world dramatically • How? For better? Or for worse? • Science fiction writers have thought about a lot of important possibilities. • We will read and discuss a few. • Brief discussion. Few conclusions. • Questions are more important than answers.
Robot Lab Assignments • There are five robot lab assignments. • Due every two weeks. • You demonstrate the techniques taught in class. • “In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is.”
Robot Assignments 1, 2, 3 • Students will work in teams. • Each team has two people. • A single grade for each team. • Each team has one physical robot. • These are expensive, fragile, and irreplaceable! • Take care of them!
Robot Assignments 4, 5 • Students will work individually. • Each person gets his/her own grade. • The “robot” is in simulator. • Localization and vision.
The robot: Sony AIBO • Several sensors • 20 degrees of freedom • Onboard computing
Entertainment Robot System 7 • Sony designed the AIBO as an entertainment robot, with sophisticated built-in behaviors. • We won’t be using those. • You are welcome to explore them, but that’s not part of the course. • We are using the AIBO as a platform for implementing robotic capabilities.
Image input: 350,000 pixel CMOS camera Stereo microphones Infrared distance x 2 Acceleration Vibration Touch: head, back, chin, paw Technical Details • CPU: 64 bit RISC • 64 mb RAM • LAN: 802.11b • Degrees of freedom: • Head: 3 dof • Mouth 1 dof • Legs: 3 dof x 4 • Ears: 1 dof x 2 • Tail: 2 dof
Shooting and Blocking Past year's example videos...
What Assignments Require • The point of the assignments is to implement the methods taught in class. • To turn in an assignment: • Demonstrate the behavior to Todd before the due date. • Each team hands in a clear, concise memo describing the problem, your approach, and your results. • Append the code. • The memo describes the role of each individual on the team in accomplishing this assignment. • We will discuss each assignment in class on the due date. • Some teams will be selected to demonstrate the robots. • No assignments accepted after that class meeting.
Working in Teams • One of the goals of this course is to give you experience at working in teams. • Robot assignments 1, 2, and 3. • Your team can be stronger than any one individual, but it is also vulnerable. • You are responsible for working effectively with your team • not just for doing your own job, but also • for helping the team work well together.
Final Projects • Research one topic in greater depth. • Select a research goal (suggestions to be provided). • Survey the related literature. • Implement a prototype system and/or experiment. • Describe in detail what you did, how it worked out, what alternative approaches were.
Reading responses Due night before class (10%) Projects (30%) Proposal Literature Presentation Report Grading • Robot Assignments • Hello, World! (10%) • Kicking (10%) • Tracking (10%) • Localization (10%) • Vision (10%) • These are never accepted late! • Participation (10/%)
This class is a lot of work. • Robotics includes many different concepts. • Control theory, logic, probability, search, etc. • Abstraction barriers are very strong in most of Computer Science, but weak in Robotics. • Programs are vulnerable to sensor and motor glitches. • Plan ahead, to put the time in to this course. • Your team will be depending on you.
Robotics • The topic is fundamentally important scientifically and technologically. • Building intelligent agents • Modeling the phenomenon of mind • It will be very demanding on all of us. • Be prepared, and start work early. • It’s also very exciting and lots of fun! First assignment: Join mailing list TODAY! Read and react to control tutorial by Mon.